Fast-paced drama Matariki, by debutante film director Michael Bennett, shows the results of chaos caused by one event. A rugby league star drives past a deserted carpark late at night and witnesses a fight – he intervenes and as a result gets bashed. When a young car thief steals the man’s apparently abandoned car, he unwittingly starts a chain of events that will change his life and the lives of others, forever.
Shot entirely in South Auckland, the film stars Alix Bushnell (Go Girls), Sara Wiseman (Outrageous Fortune), Iaheto Ah Hi (Sione’s Wedding) and Michael Whalley (Eagle vs Shark).
Written by Bennett and Gavin Strawhan and produced by Fiona Copland, Matariki will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the Toronto International Film Festival – on September 11, 13 and 18 – before it's released to Kiwi audiences on November 18.